Vernon

Mudslide near Mabel Lake

12:05 p.m. update: Officials are monitoring a debris flow on the Shuswap River, near Enderby. They say the bulk of the debris, form a washout upstream, could hit the Baxter Bridge around 12:30 p.m., they are concerned for the structure.

A washout has already closed the Enderby Mabel Lake Rd. approximately 23 km. from town.

"My understanding is the flow is about 4 km. out of town (as of noon Friday). It appears to be some sort of slide or log jam that gave way. We (The City of Enderby) are concerned about our drinking water infrastructure. We have a well upstream and a raw water intake closer to town that we are monitoring.," says Enderby C.A.O, Tate Bengtson.

Bengtson says North Okananagan Emergency personnel are in a helicopter monitoring the flow.

We will have more details as they develop, we have a reporter on location. Send photos, video and information to [email protected]

8: 50 a.m. May. 2: A large landslide near Mabel Lake has packed the Shuswap River with debris, sending giant trees floating down the river towards Enderby.

Photo: Contributed - Michael Haak

The Shuswap River has been flooded with logs and debris after an apparent landslide near Mabel Lake early Friday morning.

Doug James, a developer at the Shuswap Falls RV Park says he began to notice a change in the water around 7 a.m. Friday morning.

“Some of the guys heard what they thought was thunder,” says James.

“The logs came down. They were all the way across the river at the far end of our property. They’ve broken loose now, so there’s debris all along our river front.”

He says some of the logs are huge; measuring upwards of 150 feet long and some that are three feet across.

“It’s mostly dead stuff that is coming down, but there are some live trees as well,” he adds.

“Something has gone on, that’s for sure. The (Shuswap River) has gone up three feet in just a few minutes. It has now gone back down to most of its normal depth, but there are logs crossing the river like crazy.”

Power has also been knocked out at the resort, further complicating matters, as James is even having trouble opening the resort’s electric gate.

BC Hydro notes the outage is to a handful of customers in the area. They anticipate the problem will be fixed by 10:30 a.m.